Moonlight Rose
by Mitsukai Ashi
Summary: The night of the failed wedding, Akane goes to the rooftop to reflect on her relationship with Ranma. …Yeah, if this one sucks, sorry but I was in Spanish class when I wrote it and I was totally bored.


MOONLIGHT ROSE

A Ranma ½ oneshot

By Mitsukai Ashi

Summary: The night of the failed wedding, Akane goes to the rooftop to reflect on her relationship with Ranma.

…Yeah, if this one sucks, sorry but I was in Spanish class when I wrote it and I was totally bored.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ or any of its characters. (I hate having to write this every single time, we all know what goes here!)

* * *

Akane looked around the dojo despairingly. Everything was destroyed; the walls, the roof, even their sign was in pieces, thanks to Ranma's other fiancées and her own reluctant suitors. Akane had hoped that for one day, just _one day_, they wouldn't destroy everything in their path while trying to get to Ranma. 

_Ranma. _

Akane sighed. It was just as well. Ranma didn't want their wedding to happen in the first place. He probably was dancing with joy, wherever he was.

_But today…_

She had been feeling so excited. It was a bit early to be getting married, true, but marrying Ranma…that in itself wasn't such a bad prospect, not anymore. If only he actually cared about her…

She glanced down at her hand, which was still tightly gripping her bouquet of white roses. A wave of depression washed over her, and, scowling, she tossed the flowers to the floor. It lay there innocently enough as she raised a hand to wipe away the few tears that had managed to leek through her calm demeanor. Pulling her hand away from her face, she noticed a few spots of makeup on it.

_I'll go wash this off,_ she thought. _Before I start looking like a clown._

She turned, lifted the hem of her gown, and headed toward the door of the dojo leading to the house. But just as she stepped out, the other door across the dojo opened and her fiancé, who had already changed back into his signature red Chinese shirt and pants, walked in. Akane didn't notice him; her thoughts were focused elsewhere. But Ranma watched as his beautiful, downtrodden fiancée walked away. He opened his mouth to call to her, but closed it again as she disappeared into the night. What could he say_? Sorry that my insane fiancées tried to kill you, Akane, better luck next time_? That just wouldn't cut it. How could he make this up to her?

_As if she wanted to marry me anyway,_ he thought bitterly. _She only agreed to it so that I could get the Nannichuan water. She felt sorry for me. She never would've agreed to go through with the wedding otherwise…_

His gaze lowered to the floor and swept over the trash and debris left behind from the attack earlier. As his eyes progressed across the room, his sight caught and rested upon the hopelessly deserted batch of flowers that Akane had thrown away. He crossed the room and knelt beside this.

_Why would she throw this away…?_ he thought, frowning slightly. He reached out and picked it up. The flowers were dying; most of them had already lost a few petals, which lay among the trash that littered the floor or fluttered down from where he held them. But there was one that looked oddly untouched. He felt it gently and realized it was a fake flower. His thoughts trailed back to that morning, when he had heard Kasumi and Akane discussing the flowers…

_**Flashback**_

_Ranma walked down the hall past the Tendo family rooms, grumbling about his father drinking all the wedding sakè before the wedding itself had started. He neared Akane's room and paused, hearing two voices from inside. _

"_Here's the bouquet, Akane," said Kasumi, handing her sister the batch of white roses. _

"_Thanks, Kasumi." _

"_I tucked an artificial one in there," said Kasumi. "You know, like how Mother said she did for her marriage to Father?"_

"_Oh yeah, that whole thing about their love lasting forever, like that flower?" asked Akane. "C'mon, Kasumi, get real. That worked for Mom and Dad because they were really in love. But Ranma doesn't love me. It's more like an omen; the artificial rose symbolizes the fake relationship between me and Ranma. I think you're jinxing us."_

_Ranma couldn't help but flinch at the bitterness he heard in her voice. Did she really resent him that much…?_

"_Well, perhaps Mother is watching over us today," said Kasumi. "If you won't do it for the wedding, at least do it for me and Mother, okay?"_

_He heard Akane sigh. "Alright, Kasumi," she said. "I'll do it. Thanks." _

_**End flashback**_

He knew Akane better than that. Today had meant a lot to her. Not so much marrying _him_, but marriage, period. Wedding day was an important day in every girl's life, something she looked forward to since her childhood. Akane was no exception. And having something so important as a tradition handed down from her deceased mother would just double the meaning…thereby doubling the pain she could be feeling right now.

He stood, almost cradling the bouquet to him. He had to find her, right now. He had to talk to her. There was no way they could avoid it, anyway. He turned and headed out the door that just minutes ago, Akane had exited through.

* * *

Despite the gown, Akane was able to easily swing herself onto the roof without destroying a stitch. Sighing, she sat down and brought her knees to her chest, resting her chin in the cleft between her arms as she brought them to rest on her knees. She gazed up at the stars, and at the pale, beautiful moon. 

_Juliet was right,_ she thought sadly. _Love can be just as inconsistent and variable as the phases of the moon…_

She stretched out her legs for a moment and kicked off her shoes, sending the expensive white heels flying over the edge of the roof as she brought her legs back up to her. She heard a dull _thud_ and a rather audible, "OW! What the hell…?"

She blinked. _Ranma…?_

Sure enough, a moment later, her fiancé's annoyed face rose over the side of the roof.

"You really should let out a warning before sending those through the air," he said with a frown. "They REALLY hurt otherwise."

Akane had to crack a smile at the thought of her shoes colliding with Ranma's hard skull. He noticed this and gave her a small smile himself, then proceeded to lift himself the rest of the way up. This proved difficult, as he was, which Akane noted with great surprise, carrying the same bouquet she had just recently tossed aside.

"I'm sorry, Ranma," she said as he moved to sit beside her. "I didn't think you'd be there."

"You should know by now that I'm usually nearby," he said quietly. He held out the flowers to her. "I think you forgot these."

She stared down at them, then scowled and brushed them aside. "Do what you want with them," she said. "I don't want them anymore. There's no point."

He pulled them away from her but continued holding them as he gazed nervously ahead of him.

"Uh…'Kane?"

"Hm?"

"I, uh…I'm sorry about earlier, you know, with the wedding and all," he said. "They messed up our plans and…well, I just wanted to apologize for it. So…I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she said. "They were my plans, not yours, so don't worry about it. And besides…you didn't want to go through with it anyway, so what the hell are you sorry about?"

"Well…okay, I'll admit, I wasn't ready to get married," he said. "Not today, anyway. But…I never said that I wouldn't do it…and I _know _I never said I didn't want to."

She looked at him, her eyes wide with shock. "What…?"

He wasn't looking at her, but the moonlight was bright enough that she could see his flushed face.

"I…Akane, I wouldn't mind…m-m-marrying you. I really wouldn't. A-a-and I think that I might actually…l-l-like it…" He took a deep breath and plowed on, "I just…I don't want them to force me, push us into doing something as big and important as this. I mean, we're still only sixteen; we're only freshmen in high school! It's just…too early."

She nodded. "I've been thinking about that too," she said softly. "And I agree, it's way too early for us to be getting married." She looked down at the ground, where the breeze was creating strange patterns in the koi pond, making it shimmer with moonlight. "But…if we keep putting it off until we're ready and willing, then it's never going to happen."

His head snapped up to look at her. "What makes you say that?" he asked nervously.

She began to pick nervously at the hem of her gown. "I don't believe in marriage unless the couple is in love," she said. "And you don't love me, right? And I'm not going to marry you unless you do. So it's never going to happen. We may as well just call off the whole engagement."

He reached out and touched her face through the veil that still hung before her face, turning her head to look at him.

"I…I could," he said softly. "I could very easily fall in love with you, Akane…"

Her eyes widened, then she suddenly pulled away from him. As he tried to figure out why, she brought her hand back and smacked him clean across the face. All he could do was stare at her as the sounds of the slap reverberated throughout the still evening air.

"It's things like that, Ranma, that keeps us from liking each other!" she shouted angrily, standing up.

"Things like what?!" he asked, furious, as he stood up too.

"Your teasing and my violence!" she retorted. "You keep teasing me, I keep getting angry and hitting you, and we fight! All you keep seeing is the ugly, macho, violent, stupid tomboy with a body built like a brick, and all I keep seeing is an insensitive jerk that hates my guts! So how could we ever be ready to get married if you hate me, huh? You tell me that!" She turned and began to walk away.

"Oh, no you don't!" he snapped, reaching out and grabbing her wrist. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To my room, where I can be away from you!"

"Nope! You're not going anywhere without hearing me out first!"

"Let go, Ranma!"

He tugged on her wrist until her body twisted gracefully right into him. He gripped his arms around her tightly so that she couldn't pull away, and Akane found herself crushed against his body in a tight embrace, his blue eyes boring into her brown ones.

"L-let go, Ranma," she said again, but with much less force than the first time.

"You're going to listen to me first, Akane," he said. "So get it straight, because I'm only going to say this once. I call you those things all the time. But do you really think that I mean any of it?"

"Well, why shouldn't I?"

"Why shouldn't I believe that I'm a perverted, cross-dressing playboy?" he shot back. "I hear those insults all the time, Akane, and not just from you. But I know that I'm not as bad as that. Sure I may do something similar once in a while, but only when I need to. And I know I'm a jerk, but…I don't mean to be, Akane…not to you. The things I say…you know I talk without thinking all the time. Hell, I've nearly died numerous times because of it. But when I say things like that to you, it doesn't mean that they're true. And they sure as hell don't mean that I don't lo—" He cut himself off suddenly, catching what he was about to say just before he said it.

Unfortunately for him, Akane no longer had any intention of leaving without listening to him.

"That you don't what, Ranma?" she asked softly.

He swallowed and lowered his gaze. There was no way out of telling her now. Damn him and his motor mouth. But it was about time he told her the truth, anyway. Especially if he'd been hurting her this badly without knowing it, just to try and hide his feelings from her…

"L-love you," he whispered. "The things I say to you don't mean that I don't love you."

Her jaw dropped a little, and he pressed on rapidly, "A-and…and you said you wouldn't marry me unless I loved you, but you never said you didn't love me. So…so does that mean that you…?"

She was speechless. Ranma loved her? Her, the uncute tomboy?

"Akane?"

She couldn't believe this. She'd thought that Ranma hated her, loathed the day they met with a burning passion. But he LOVED her?

"Akane?!" he asked nervously.

She had to be sure that this wasn't a joke, before anything else.

"Y-you…you love me…?"she breathed out finally.

He relaxed, and he reached out to lift the veil from her face. "Yeah," he whispered to her. "I do."

And he kissed her.

She closed her eyes and immediately melted into the kiss, their first real kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck as his arms slid down her body and gripped her around her waist. They kissed tenderly, yet passionately, and Akane felt her knees go weak. Deep within her, the hope that she had thought had been permanently destroyed blossomed and grew once more, stronger than ever before. She broke the kiss reluctantly; she did need to breathe, and besides, she needed to tell him something too.

"I love you too, Ranma," she said. "I always have, and I always will. I don't care about your curse," she added as he opened his mouth to protest. He closed it again sheepishly, and she smiled and continued. "I love you just the same, cured or not. Although I'm telling you right now," she added with a jab of combined humor and sincerity, "I'm not doing anything with you when you're in your girl form."

He laughed, then became somber again. His gaze traveled downward, and his eyes landed upon a certain flower that lay at his fiancée's feet. He bent over and picked it up, hesitating only a moment before handing it to her.

"I'll always love you too, Akane," he whispered. "Until the petals of this rose wither, die, and fall away, I will love you."

She took it and fingered the undying petals of the everlasting rose and felt her eyes well up with tears. She threw her arms around him and pressed her lips to his again in a long, sweet, loving kiss.

Around them, white rose petals fluttered in the moonlight.

* * *

(A/N): Yeah, I wanted a bit of fluffiness. And I'd much rather sit around and write a fluffy Ranma/Akane fic than write Spanish proverbs for an hour. It probably sucks but hey, no one's perfect. 

Please R&R.

P.S. I'm a die-hard Ranma/Akane fan. Long live Ranma and Akane!!!


End file.
